Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Science and Poetry, Part Two

You'll both recall that a little while ago I wrote about the surprisingly close alignment between science and poetry. This was brought home to me today after I was deluged with a message from my colleague Dr C. S. of Cambridgeshire who'd been leafing through a collection of poems entitled Spanish Fly by Neil Rollinson, and found a poem called Santa Claus as Macroscopic Quantum Object Delivers His Presents On Time, in which the poet prefaces the poem with a quote from me that runs
It is a feature of the Quantum World that particles can be in more than one place at a time, provided that no one is watching.
This quotation comes from a humorous piece I had written in the Guardian some time ago hypothesizing that Santa must be a quantum macroscopic object, as this enables him to be in more than one place at once (explaining how he can deliver all those gifts in a single night), but explains the taboo against seeing him at work, and, notwithstanding inasmuch as which, why he lives in very cold places.

Never thought that anything I might write would inspire others to poetry. I have to say I'm touched. Wherever you are, Mr Rollinson, thank you.

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